Square Mile

Longtime highway and toll road proponent Robert Poole made numerous misleading statements in his commentary, "Tax a bad investment" (Oct. 23). For instance, he says Broward County has a population density of just 1,346 people per square mile, so transit is not the solution. But this number is based on Broward's total land area of 1,220 square miles, which includes 797 square miles of conservation area (Everglades), and Broward's (old) 2000 Census population data. In 2010, Broward's population projection is 1.95 million and based on the habitable land area of only 423 square miles, Broward's population density will be 4,621 people per square mile.

As a resident of South Florida, witness to some of the worst driving in the nation, I am always interested in discussions about bringing mass transit to Florida. But the proposed Tampa-to-Orlando high-speed rail seems to be extravagant and irrelevant to some of the real public transportation issues currently facing Florida. The Tampa-Orlando high-speed rail link is estimated to cost $3.5 billion and, upon completion, will likely operate with ongoing subsidies. The real question is why are those rail links needed?

A Mediterranean fruit fly has been found in the Clearwater area, but there is no evidence of an infestation of the black and white fly that attacks citrus and other fruits, agriculture officials said Saturday. The female medfly was discovered Friday at a trap hanging in a Calamondin tree in Indian Rocks Beach, a seaside area in Pinellas County. Additional traps were being set up in a 81-square-mile area surrounding the find, said Doyle Conner, Florida Commissioner of Agriculture. "Florida`s excellent detection program and vast network of approximately 13,000 traps has found six single fly introductions since 1964," he said.

Longtime highway and toll road proponent Robert Poole made numerous misleading statements in his commentary, "Tax a bad investment" (Oct. 23). For instance, he says Broward County has a population density of just 1,346 people per square mile, so transit is not the solution. But this number is based on Broward's total land area of 1,220 square miles, which includes 797 square miles of conservation area (Everglades), and Broward's (old) 2000 Census population data. In 2010, Broward's population projection is 1.95 million and based on the habitable land area of only 423 square miles, Broward's population density will be 4,621 people per square mile.

161,000 Jobs in Florida that depend on exports of manufactured goods U.S. Commerce Department 29% Broward County's share of Florida's gross marine sales Fiscal year 2000 study done for the Marine Industries Association of South Florida and the Broward Alliance 296.3 Average number of persons per square mile in Florida in 2000 (eighth densest state in country) University of Florida Bureau of Economic and Business Research 30 Number of special meals offered by United Airlines (includes "diabetic" and "kosher")

From World Almanac for Kids: Four Corners Monument is the only place in the United States where you can stand in four states at once (Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico and Utah). Yellowstone National Park is the oldest national park in the United States. The 2,219,791-acre park was established in 1872. True to its motto, "Crossroads of America," Indiana has more interstate highway per square mile than any other state. In 1874, the first U.S. public zoo opened in Philadelphia. The Gateway Arch in St. Louis is the tallest monument in the United States.

Too close to call ... It was a common mantra of the March Boca Raton City Council campaign: That Boca Raton is going to turn into "another Fort Lauderdale." It turns out - according to a recent edition of the South Florida Business Journal - that Boca Raton has a ways to go before its density approaches Fort Lauderdale. According to the list, Boca Raton (population 67,754) is now the 12th biggest city in South Florida. Fort Lauderdale (149,377) is No. 3 behind Miami (365,000) and Hialeah (203,911)

The suburbanization of South Florida continued in earnest during the 1980s -- a decade marked by the transformation of miles of sleepy pasture into picket-fence communities. The boom, federal census figures show, was most pronounced in Broward County, where the vast lands west of Florida`s Turnpike welcomed 204,000 new residents in the last decade. That 58 percent increase brought the western suburb population to more than a half million. During the same period, the county`s overall population rose 17 percent to 1,197,114.

If you`re looking for a gift for someone who wants the world, but perhaps they think they know it all, why not try an atlas with a different slant. The authors of The Atlas of the United States published by Macmillan have tried to present the U.S. as a union of states, each with its different demographics, and also as a nation among others: A good way to remind ourselves of the interdependence of humanity this holiday season. Not only does this atlas have the bold graphics and colorful maps you would expect, but it is also filled with sociological, economic and scientific facts about virtually every aspect of this country and its relation to the rest of the world.

From World Almanac for Kids: Four Corners Monument is the only place in the United States where you can stand in four states at once (Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico and Utah). Yellowstone National Park is the oldest national park in the United States. The 2,219,791-acre park was established in 1872. True to its motto, "Crossroads of America," Indiana has more interstate highway per square mile than any other state. In 1874, the first U.S. public zoo opened in Philadelphia. The Gateway Arch in St. Louis is the tallest monument in the United States.

The state's canker-eradication battle will be bulldozing a sizable chunk of St. Lucie County: 6.2 square miles of commercial groves scattered among six sites. Collectively, the land area is equivalent to half the size of Vero Beach. Although that's less than 5 percent of all the groves in St. Lucie County, the cutting must be drastic. The largest site encompasses almost four square miles and more than 300 canker-infected trees, said Gregory Carlton, heads of the Florida Department of Agriculture's Bureau of Pest Eradication and Control.

Health Department officials on Wednesday stepped up the search for additional malaria cases in the woodsy neighborhoods of a targeted "hot zone" west of Lake Worth while confirming that the latest victim was infected with the same strain of the disease contracted by seven other Palm Beach County residents. As county workers continued to distribute literature describing symptoms and urging homeless shelters, soup kitchens and labor unions to be on the lookout for signs of the illness, county epidemiologist Dr. Savita Kumar vowed "to focus more energy on outreach, going to people looking for more cases.

161,000 Jobs in Florida that depend on exports of manufactured goods U.S. Commerce Department 29% Broward County's share of Florida's gross marine sales Fiscal year 2000 study done for the Marine Industries Association of South Florida and the Broward Alliance 296.3 Average number of persons per square mile in Florida in 2000 (eighth densest state in country) University of Florida Bureau of Economic and Business Research 30 Number of special meals offered by United Airlines (includes "diabetic" and "kosher")

Sandra Greenberg's living room was a pepper farm little more than a decade ago, and she's been around long enough to remember. She and her husband, Jerry, bought into the Palm Isles development west of Boynton Beach in 1990, when the "active adult" community was nothing but plans. "We wanted a place that was not quite as built up as Boca [Raton] -- we wanted something more countrified. I'm laughing when I think about it," she says, "because look where I am now." Almost the entire square mile around her house -- the square mile just north of Boynton Beach Boulevard and just east of Florida's Turnpike -- is now developed with 2,025 houses and condominiums, according to Palm Beach County planning and property records.

If all you have is a long (or even a standard) weekend to witness Autumn 2000 in all its splendor, Rhode Island is the perfect destination. The northwest quadrant of the state is like the Berlitz School of fall foliage. Think total immersion. No distractions. No McDonald's. No Dunkin' Donuts. (If you're really lucky, though, you may spot a Chock Full O' Nuts through the leaves: red, gold, purple, yellow). No Gap. No Banana Republic. The four-week-or-so fall "semester" begins in late September and runs till mid October in places like Chepachet, Pascoag, Whipple, Harmony and Glocester (pronounced `Glasta')

The tiny park is hard and gray and uninviting -- concrete benches sitting on concrete pavement. The only green is a little strip of grass with a few wispy trees, and these are fenced off from the public. Still, this bit of cement is officially called a "pleasure ground," and mothers and children and old people flock to it because in the crowded Mong Kok section of crowded Hong Kong even space on a concrete bench in the noonday sun is a treat. In Mong Kok, space, any space, is special.

Members of a western Miami-Dade community won't be forced to sell their homes to water managers after all. After agreeing 18 months ago to buy out the entire 8 Square Mile Area, a regional water board voted Thursday on a compromise that preserves most residents' property rights while delivering more water to the east side of Everglades National Park. "Is this perfect? No," said South Florida Water Management District board Chairman Michael Collins. "Does this give us the ability to move forward?

They shouted "Not for sale!" and "No venderemos!" They waved hand-lettered signs and American flags. On horses and in cowboy hats, about 70 owners of rural land in western Miami-Dade County rallied on Monday against the government's plans to buy their property for the restoration of the Everglades. As the landowners gathered in a parking lot, the board of the South Florida Water Management District met inside to discuss what to do about their land, approximately 6,400 acres just north of Everglades National Park.